Skip to content (Juneng Weiye)
Engineers reply within 24h
Menu ▾
Technical Notes

How Does Carbon Fiber Perform Under Extreme Loads?

Carbon fiber's tensile strength is 4900 MPa, modulus 240 GPa — comparable to or exceeding steel. Specs and weave styles for the most-asked questions.

Published: 2022-05-26

How Does Carbon Fiber Perform Under Extreme Loads?

If you needed a material to handle a primordial force, high-strength carbon fiber is the recommendation. Carbon fiber offers high strength and high modulus — 7–9× steel — with a tensile elastic modulus of 23 000–43 000 MPa and tensile strength of 4900 MPa, higher than steel.

Carbon Fiber Parameters

  • Tensile strength: 4900 MPa
  • Tensile modulus: 240 GPa
  • Elongation: 2.0 %
  • Density: 1.80 g/cm³
  • Diameter: 7 μm

Using T700 12K as a reference, density is 1.80 g/cm³ — lighter than steel (7.85 g/cm³). For equal volume, carbon fiber weighs roughly one quarter of steel.

Bidirectional Weave 200 g/m²

  • Length × width: 100 m × variable
  • Width: 100 / 200 / 300 / 500 / 600 mm
  • Thickness: 0.111 mm (single layer)

Bidirectional Weave 300 g/m²

  • Width: 100 / 200 / 300 / 500 / 1000 mm
  • Thickness: 0.167 mm (single layer)

Grammage and ply count are sized to load and design — used together with matched epoxy impregnant.